


Sick

by Xoxerothepoet



Category: Bunnicula (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 21:45:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11975664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xoxerothepoet/pseuds/Xoxerothepoet
Summary: Bunnicula gets worried when Chester starts coughing up blood.





	Sick

Chester woke up with blood on his blanket, which wasn’t as unusual an occurrence as someone would think with all of the strange supernatural occurrences that seemed to happen when Bunnicula was close by. Bruises from being thrown against a hard surface were common, cuts from the claws of a supernatural creature were common. Sometimes it was simply clumsiness that would injure him. The cat would bleed, his blanket would be cleaned, and the next night he would bleed again and the cycle would continue.

This time was different. This time he hadn’t bled from an injury. This time he had been sleeping and he coughed. The noise from his cough had woken Mina, and her shriek when he coughed a second time and stained his blanket with his blood woke up every animal in Mina’s room, and every person living in the apartment building.

Mina’s father took Chester to an animal hospital that operated late at night. Mina went with him and left her two other pets at home to sleep. Harold believed that Chester would be alright and he had no reason to worry, but Bunnicula feared that his friend would die.

Bunnicula followed the car carrying his friend to the hospital, and he hid in the walls of the building. He watched as the doctors tested the cat, and he cringed every time he saw the cat cough up blood.

He waited and watched from within the walls for a half hour while the doctors performed tests on Chester. Eventually the doctors gave the cat to Mina and gave her a piece of paper after they told her something that Bunnicula wasn’t able to understand. Mina started to cry along with her father, while Chester seemed to be too tired to care. The cat had curled himself up inside his pet carrier and seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep.

It perplexed Bunnicula how Chester was able to sleep when his body was forcing him to cough every few minutes.

Bunnicula managed to easily get home faster than Mina and her father and was patiently waiting at the door for his master and his friend to return. Mina patted his head with tear-filled eyes and placed the pet carrier containing Chester on the floor.

The next day, after Bunnicula had taken a short nap, the vampire rabbit flew upstairs to check up on his friend. He was relieved to see Chester lying on the couch watching a documentary that Bunnicula thought was incredibly boring. He thought that he saw a man building a bicycle on the screen and he heard a man telling a story about the first man who decided to hire schoolboys to deliver newspapers using bicycles.

Bunnicula sat beside his friend and when he received no acknowledgement that his friend had noticed his presence, he pressed his body against the body of the cat. When he continued to receive no acknowledgement he was annoyed, but also a little bit happy that his friend was allowing him to get close to him without pushing him away.

He was interested in the cat, most of the things he did were to get the cat to pay attention to him. When he misbehaved it was only because he wanted Chester to speak to him, if only to tell him to stop misbehaving. He craved the attention of the cat, and he didn’t really know why.

He could feel the warmth coming from the body of his friend and he started to emit a noise from his throat that sounded like a purr. The noise startled him and he practically leaped backwards away from the cat and landed on the remote control lying on the couch cushion.

The channel changed to an episode of Spongebob Squarepants and Bunnicula looked at the screen as the blue squid took a shower in his home. The camera revealed a second character, Spongebob, washing the back of the squid and harmonizing with him as he sang.

The squid screamed, the squid told the sponge to leave and the sponge appeared to not want to leave. Indeed, the sponge didn’t leave until the squid forcefully kicked him out of his house.

Bunnicula smiled because he believed that he could relate to the sponge in that particular moment.

Chester coughed and Bunnicula looked away from the television to see his friend coughing into his blanket. Bunnicula cocked his head to get a closer look at the blanket.

As he feared, every time Chester coughed a little bit of blood would appear on the blanket.

Bunnicula gently tapped on the shoulder of his friend and Chester stopped coughing for a brief moment to give his friend what he must have assumed was a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry Bunnicula, I’m fine,” Chester said to the rabbit. Bunnicula frowned and pointed at the blanket which was stained with Chester’s blood.

“Oh, don’t worry. This is healthy cough blood,” Chester said with a chuckle, and Bunnicula continued to frown.

The vampire rabbit moved towards his friend and stood in front of the cat, his eyes stared into the eyes of his friend. Chester tried to smile, and he tried to retain eye-contact with his friend, but the piercing gaze of the rabbit was enough to make him look away after a few seconds.

“Okay, I’m not fine and this cough blood isn’t healthy. Is that what you wanted to hear?” Chester growled at his friend, then he coughed and a few droplets of blood landed on Bunnicula’s white fur.

“You might want to clean that up, I wouldn’t want you to catch that. There isn’t a cure for it,” Chester’s voice was bitter and angry, but Bunnicula didn’t begrudge him for that. He couldn’t bring himself to be angry at his friend for too long, and he could definitely forgive him for being a little bit angry at himself being sick.

Bunnicula ran his paw through the fur which had been coated with a little bit of Chester’s blood. He brought his paw up to his face and stared intently at the blood. He half expected the blood to come to life, reveal that the cause of the disease that infected his friend was simply a wicked ghost that needed to be exorcised, and then lead him to a magical artifact that could save his friend. Stranger things had happened in the apartment.

“Don’t let that stuff get inside of you,” Chester warned his friend, then he sighed and slumped down on the couch.

“The one time I decide to have a bit of fun, the one time I decide to let loose and indulge myself…” Chester sighed deeply, and Bunnicula frowned and wiped his paw against his fur.

“Can I help?” Bunnicula spoke English for a rare moment, and he expected Chester to make a comment about why he didn’t speak the language more often.

Truthfully, Bunnicula never actually spoke English, he always spoke using his unique vampire gibberish. For most animals and supernatural creatures, Bunnicula’s speech would be magically translated so that they could understand him. For some reason, this magical translation thing only worked on Chester on rare occasions.

Part of Bunnicula’s interest in his friend stemmed from this simple barrier between them.

“You can help by using a time mirror that goes back in time further than 30 minutes to tell my past self not to download that stupid Pet Grindr app,” Chester was obviously still angry, and there was more than a hint of bitterness in his voice, but Bunnicula noticed a little bit of softness in his voice when he mentioned Pet Grindr.

“Pet Grindr?” Bunnicula asked, and Chester shook his head.

“Of course you wouldn’t know anything about it. It’s basically an app designed by a gay pet for other gay pets to meet each other for anonymous hook ups. I was lonely, and I was tired of having such bad luck with women, I figured, maybe I’d have better luck with a guy. I mean, a hook up isn’t exactly a date, but it’s something,” Bunnicula’s ears twitched a little once Chester was done speaking.

“Why didn’t you ask me?” Bunnicula asked his friend, and Chester frowned and turned his head away from the rabbit.

“If you’re going to tell me that you love me, forget it,” Chester stood up, picked up his blanket, and started walking towards Mina’s bedroom. Tears started to run down Bunnicula’s face once his friend had left the room.

He hadn’t meant to say the last thing he had said to Chester, the words felt as though they simply fell out of his mouth before he had a chance to understand what he was saying. It made sense though, he always had a bit of fondness for Chester, he always wanted Chester to pay attention to him, and he was always more hurt when Chester was angry or disappointed with him than he was with anyone else.

Was he in love with Chester?

He heard Chester coughing upstairs and he frowned. If he was in love with his friend, he picked a truly terrible time to realize it.

Four days later Chester was in even worse condition. He had become much thinner, and he was sleeping much more often than usual. In fact, Bunnicula hadn’t seen him awake in two full days. Sometimes Harold would give the sleeping cat a poke with one of his squeaky toys to make sure he was still alive. What worried Bunnicula the most was that Chester wouldn’t always respond to the pokes.

It felt like a dagger was being shoved into Bunnicula’s heart whenever he saw his friend lying down, unwilling or unable to move even to get himself food and water. Mina had started using a little bottle that her father had used to make her drink milk when she was a baby to get Chester to drink, she had also started blending all of his meals to make it easier for him to eat. It was all pointless because nothing that they could do would save the life of their friend.

“Could you suck out the disease?” 

Bunnicula’s ears perked up when he heard the voice of his owner, he could feel her hand petting his head and he started to purr a little bit. Normally Mina would have smiled, but she didn’t this time. Her gaze was fixated on Chester, who was sleeping on top of his blanket.

“I know that you’re not a real vampire, but if you were, and if you could suck out the disease I’m sure that you would. I know that you don’t want to lose him any more than I do,” Mina momentarily stopped petting Bunnicula to wipe a tear from her eye.

“I kind of wish he would just die and get it over with, it’s watching him slowly wither away that hurts the most. He’s going to die eventually, I just want to get to the bereavement stage quickly and get it over with,” Mina sighed heavily and Bunnicula frowned.

Theoretically, he could suck the disease out of Chester, but it would be a long and painful process for both of them. He would need to bite Chester, suck a little bit of the disease out, and spit it out before he swallowed any of it. He would need a little water to wash his mouth out after the bite just to be safe, then he would repeat the process and bite Chester again.

He debated in his head whether or not Chester, his beloved friend and possible crush was worth the hassle and risk.

Later that night, when everyone was asleep, Bunnicula lifted Chester and carried him out of Mina’s bedroom into the basement. Chester never opened his eyes during the journey.

Bunnicula had prepared a spit bowl, and about 30 cups of water. He also had a bottle of peroxide he found in the medicine cabinet to use on Chester’s wounds once he was done.

The first bite woke Chester up, but the feline was too weak to protest the bite, he just stared at Bunnicula as he bit him and sucked out his blood. After 20 minutes of biting, spitting, and gargling Bunnicula started to feel a bit queasy. Chester was looking worse the more blood he removed, and Bunnicula was getting tired and he was disgusted by the taste of the diseased blood.

Nonetheless, the vampire rabbit continued sucking out the disease from his friend, and after two hours he was sure he had removed all of the disease. He felt extremely tired, and his friend had lost the strength to remain conscious after the first ten minutes of the process.

Bunnicula placed all of the cups in the dishwasher and dumped out the blood and assorted fluids he had sucked from his friend from the large bowl. He was about to use the peroxide on the bite marks when his eyes felt too heavy to remain open, and he collapsed on the floor.

When he awoke he found himself in a small bed in what appeared to be the same animal hospital he had seen Chester at earlier that week, when he first started coughing blood. Mina was standing over him beside a doctor.

“I’m not a religious man, but this is truly something extraordinary. When you brought this rabbit here his body was filled with disease, now he is completely disease free,” The doctor said to the girl, who smiled and started to stroke Bunnicula’s chest.

“It must be all of the veggies he eats,” Mina said to the doctor, and the doctor smiled as he wrote down something on his clipboard.

“Yeah, must be the veggies. I’ve never seen an animal with an immune system this strong,”

Bunnicula looked around the room while the doctor continued to praise Bunnicula’s recovery and Mina stroked his body. He looked at the bed right next to the bed he was lying on and noticed a number of machines, tubes and wires all connected to a single cat.

He looked a little closer, and he recognized the cat as his friend. Out of pure instinct he hopped out of the bed and hopped beside the unconscious cat wearing a breathing mask. The slow, rhythmic beeps from the heart monitor provided an eerie ambience.

“Chester…” Bunnicula whispered, and he cursed himself for not having saved him even with all of his effort. Chester’s eyes opened and he turned his head slightly to face Bunnicula.

“I…I re-r-remember seeing you…you tried to s-save me,” Chester’s voice sounded so weak that it broke Bunnicula’s heart. The rabbit nodded his head and Chester smiled weakly.

“I’m going to die soon,” Chester whispered and Bunnicula nodded his head sadly. His paw gripped onto Chester’s paw and he squeezed it tightly.

“I’m not scared, I know there’s life after death. You’ve shown it to m-me, thank you,” Chester whispered and Bunnicula smiled. The rabbit reached for the breathing mask before he realized what he was doing. He quickly removed the mask and moved his face so that he was staring into Chester’s eyes and their lips were almost touching.

Chester was smiling, and Bunnicula had a small grin on his face that didn’t reflect the sadness he was feeling. His paws gently traced shapes in Chester’s fur.

He removed the gap between their lips and placed a tender kiss upon Chester’s mouth. The feline relaxed into the kiss, and as much as Bunnicula wanted to give into his lust and deepen the kiss, he decided that it felt more fitting to simply enjoy the feeling of their bodies being connected through the kiss for one brief moment. Their last moment together.

Bunnicula could feel Chester’s body going limp and he futilely started to squeeze his body tightly as though he could somehow make his spirit stay inside of him and keep him alive for a few precious seconds. 

Eventually, the body of the cat went completely limp, and Bunnicula could hear a single continuous beep from the heart monitor. At that moment, the rest of the world faded away, the only two things in his world were the single piercing noise, and the body of his cherished friend.

“Goodbye,” Bunnicula whispered. He gave his friend a short kiss on his cheek before he was picked up by Mina.

The girl carried him out of the room and Bunnicula closed his eyes as his fur was moistened by his tears. He remembered the many good times he had with Chester, as well as the many times when he hadn’t been the best friend he could have been and made Chester’s life miserable.

By the time that he had found himself in the pet carrier being transported back to the apartment he had made himself sad by thinking about all of the ways he could have made Chester more comfortable, the times that he could have been more considerate, the times that he could have attempted to turn their friendship into something more.

He sniffled, and he wiped a tear from his eye with his paw. As he did so, he noticed a small amount of blood that he assumed belonged to Chester that he must have forgotten to wash off. He smiled and pressed his paw against his chest and he sighed contently.

The blood on his white fur was in the shape of a heart.


End file.
